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Dodgers’ new trainer hard at work

The first female to head up the trainer's room of a major professional sports team in the U.S. has encountered virtually full acceptance in her new job, The Daily Breeze reports.

Sue Falsone was named this past October as the head athletic trainer of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Weeks into spring training and shortly before Major League Baseball's Opening Day, the first woman to hold a physical therapy job under those circumstances said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

"I've spent almost every off-season with her, seeing her, doing work with her," Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier said, noting he first started training with her at an Arizona facility in 2002. "I was more than ecstatic to hear that she was brought on to the staff, to have someone that has been very instrumental in my career, helping me stay on the field and getting back in shape every off-season. This was a great opportunity for her and a great opportunity for this team to get someone of her caliber here."

The team's head of medical services last fall had his eye on Falsone as the Arizona facility was a client of the Dodgers so her services already were delivering benefits.

The assistant athletic trainer to Falsone also is female, creating the first women duo to hold those responsibilities in professional baseball.